Ultimate Treadmill Workout: Lose Belly Fat And Build Muscle

Lose weight and look good doing it with our treadmill challenge
- by
Jack Hart

10 Aug
2018

Getty Images

The treadmill is one of the most criminally-underused pieces of equipment in your gym. Utilised correctly and with the right treadmill workout, the humble tread can be used to burn belly fat, increase fitness and build endurance like nothing else.

There's a reasonCrossFit athletes, Strongmen and, obviously, Olympians include them as part of their training — so why are you shunning it?

Below, we give you one of our best-ever treadmill workouts, designed to blast fat and increase fitness. It's particularly handy if you're wanting to sweat out a weekend of beer and burgers, or if you want a quick gym workout to set the bar high for any workouts ahead.

Treadmill HIIT Workout

The treadmill workout below is the ultimate test of speed and endurance. How long you can maintain your top sprinting power? For this workout, crank the treadmill up to a 10 per cent incline and prepare to find out how fast you really are.

What does the treadmill do for you?

Todd Durkin, owner of Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, says "During a treadmill workout, running uphill at a high incline forces you to drive your legs and knees up, extend your hips back, and explode off the balls of your feet—all skills that increase your ability to propel your body forward in an all-out sprint on flat ground."

Drop in hard

Once the belt is up to speed, jump on using the treadmill hand rails. Make sure you land with your forefoot first – the impact will be absorbed by your quads, rather than your joints.

Knees equals speed

As soon as your foot touches, drive up with your back knee to power forward in a big stride. Imagine a line reeling in from your shoulder to knee; more leaping gazelle, less Team America puppet.

Flight of foot

Landing with the opposite foot, repeat the motion with your other leg; you’re aiming for a constant, fluid pace you can sustain for 30secs at a time. Rest for 30 second after each sprint and do 10 in total.

Your treadmill workout scoreboard

8.3mph –average

At this speed – the averagejoggingspeed for men – you’d take 27secs to cover 100m. We don’t expect you to beat Usain Bolt in a race, but at this rate he could run it three times in the time it takes you...

10.9mph – fit

Getting up to this speed for 30secs over 10 rounds is a decent effort. As reward, treat yourself to some guilt-free pigging out – by the time you stop you’ll have burned the calorie equivalent of a bacon sandwich.

12mph – advanced

Now we’re really getting somewhere. Not only are you in a prime muscle-building zone, you’ll torch nearly 100 calories over the total 10 rounds; you’d have to lift weights for half an hour to burn the same amount.

13.5mph – elite

This is the average speed clocked by NFL running back Darren Sproles, so if you’re hitting these lofty heights, you might want to consider a career change. Or at least swap those half marathons for track meetings.